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I'm looking at getting my hands on some Xbox games that possibly slipped under my radar when released but are still good. Any suggestions?

As a starter, I nominate Lost Odyssey. I'm in the final quarter of this now and I haven't enjoyed a JRPG half as much since FFVII. The fight mechanics and levelling system are nicely simple but with lots of little nuances that you can tweak to get the most from the characters. In short, it's really good.

lost is the best fiction ever / clint dempsey is the most handsome footballer around / 007 NIGHTFIRE IS THE BEST GAME EVER MADE. actually i cant think of 5. i dont think i really believe in anything else.

Metal Wolf Chaos: The president of the USA is deposed by the evil vice president. He vows to take back his country by any means possible; which in this case means a giant mech equipped with about a thousand machine guns and a couple of dozen nukes. It starts with the pres himself jumping out of an exploding White House and then just gets better.

Choice quote: "Nothing is pointless! And the reason is—because I am the President of the great UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" - The President, while hanging on to the side of a launching rocket.

since you mentioned Lost Odyssey? I like picking up early stuff that's gone dirt cheap too.

Crackdown is probably the best gem on there; proper sandbox superhero stuff.
EDF 2017: you can probably find this for a fiver. Shoot millions of giant ants.
Bioshock costs a pittance now, but you've probably played it.
Armored Core For Answer: big robots shooting each other. Supposed to be great; I'm trying to find a copy. There's also a Gundam/Dynasty Warriors game which is real bargain bin stuff, but I found it amazing fun (well, as fun as any DW game anyway).
Unlikely to have slipped under the radar, but I completely love Tomb Raider: Legend. It's beautiful and costs about a pound probably.

As a frankly pitiful Arachnophobic I really, really shouldn't have played this game so much. It genuinely freaked me the fuck out. I remember one level in a decimated city at sunset, you spend a little while taking down ants and then it all goes quiet... then you see hundreds of bouncing Tarantula's advancing, silhouetted against the sky... you know there's no way out, you're stuck in some terrifying alternate universe version of Zulu packed with mutant Spiders no option but to fight... my entire team went down in about 30 seconds but I somehow managed to finish the mission by running aimlessly backwards whilst endlessly firing rockets at a seemingly infinite number of 8 legged bastards. I didn't realise but I was screaming the entire time, knuckles white with terror...

And then there's the enormo-Spider the size of a small town. I can still see it when I close my eyes.

Why did I play that game?

Oh, and to answer the OP's question: Civilisation Revolution is a massively underrated knock about strategy game. Shit loads of fun online if you can convince a few friends to pick it up. Plus for some reason the developers made Ghandi a warmongering nutjob. After a year of playing it I still haven't stopped finding that funny.

Although that's perhaps more in terms of sales and remembrance than critical reception. Most RPGs I like get good reviews but two months after release are forgotten. I'm not actually too sure of sales figures though - so going by an underrated critical reception alone then Wild Arms 3. Critics are stupid, it's an awesome game.

I happened to call on a friend while he was playing it and I hijacked his game for a couple of hours. I'm not keen on game based anime either (or game based live action for that matter) as I'm always itching to interact with it. However I did finding myself really caring about the characters an unatural amount in the brief time I played it and failing missions due to my no-man-left-behind policy. Plus the animation style is truly beautiful.

John Woo's Stranglehold. It's just constant shooting, diving on to trolleys, more shooting, sliding down banisters, more shooting, climbing over dinosaur skeletons, more shooting then ridiculous amounts of blood in TEQUILA TIME mode. You can probably get it for a fiver. DO IT.

Battlefield: Bad Company, one of the best online games around - so much fun, 8 giant maps in two different modes. It is easily the best online game around.

I also adore: Metal Gear Online: It takes a beast of time to get up to speed and good enough to contend the people on there, but when you do - it's a great game, so many different game styles - and (up to) 12 maps to play on.

for the nerd in us all. it doesnt so much has a learning curve, as a cliff that you fling yourself against. however, its the *most* sandboxy game ive ever played, and tis free to dl too. AND being constantly added to by the programmer guy.

"This is an amazingly complex city building simulation game wherein you control a party of dwarves carving out a mountainside fortress until their inevitable horrifying demise. It's incredibly deep, although very newbie unfriendly and graphically primitive."

ive yet to get everyone to survive past year 5. by then i usually have a huge, stable fortress, with vast underground mushroom farms. then i dig too deep and the horrors that live there burn their way through EVERYONE :(